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There are two major monographs on pleiones that no enthusiast should be without. There is also a magazine published annually (by yours truly) called "The Pleione Review" (formerly "The National Pleione Report"), and other literature as detailed below. First the books - unfortunately both works have the same title! - but are by different authors:

"The Genus Pleione" by Phillip Cribb & Ian Butterfield (Second Edition)

Phillip Cribb is Curator of the Orchid Herbarium at Kew Gardens and Ian Butterfield is a nurseryman who holds the National Collection of Pleione.

The monograph contains chapters on History, Morphology, Cytology, Ecology & Conservation, Cultivation, Hybridisation, Growing Pleiones from Seed and Taxonomy. There is also a list with descriptions of registered hybrids and of those pleiones that have received awards. There are 18 colour plates of botanical paintings and 67 colour photographs of both species and hybrids, as well as distribution maps.

This book can be bought direct from Ian Butterfield (See Suppliers for his details), or from the Alpine Garden Society - see   www.alpinegardensociety.net 
Price around £33 Sterling, hardback only.

Published in 1999 by Natural History Publications in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN 983-812-040-5
(The first edition was published in 1988)

"The Genus Pleione" by Gianantonio Torelli

This monograph is in both Italian and English. It contains chapters on History, morphology, Cultivation, Taxonomy, The Species and Hybrids. It also contains lists of registered hybrids arranged both in alphabetical order of grex name and in order of parentage. There are 37 colour photographs (all of them of species) as well as line drawings, distribution maps and climatological data tables.

Published in 2000 as a special edition of Caesiana, the Italian Journal of Orchidology, ISSN 1123-5217. As such it is not available in bookshops, but can be obtained only from Italy - send an email to the editor, Franco Bruno, for details. Price is around £10 Sterling, softback only.

 


The respective authors of these two books have some disagreements over taxonomy and it is well worth reading both to get the wider picture. Dr. Torelli's book has more detailed suggestions for cultivation, while Cribb's book has more and useful information on hybrids. The colour rendition of the photographs is much better in Torelli's book - in the other, the colours of the hybrids in particular have come out far too saturated and look "garish" to my eye. There is a further work from Cribb and Butterfield:

"A Synopsis of The Genus Pleione" by Phillip Cribb & Ian Butterfield

This is a special issue of " The Orchid Digest", reprinted from an original article in Volume 65 (4): Oct to Dec 2001. It has some revisions to the taxonomy presented in their book (see taxonomy) and 58 colour photos (mainly different to those in the book), plus some stereo pairs. Much of the remaining information is repeated (verbatim) from the book.

You can order this, price $10, from: The Orchid Digest, The Botanical Center, 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, CA 91108, U.S.A. or order online from their website at www.orchiddigest.org. In the U.K., Ian Butterfield has a few copies available at £10 each. (See Suppliers for his details).

There is one further article worth mentioning, yet again by Cribb & Butterfield. This is "Little known & Confused Species of Pleione". This appeared in the September 2001 edition of "The New Plantsman" magazine, published by The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It deals with just those species whose taxonomy has been revised recently. Unfortunately this magazine is available by subscription only and single back issues are not available. However, if members of the RHS talk nicely to the very friendly and helpful staff in the RHS library, you can get a photocopy done.

Now The Magazine:

"The Pleione Review"
(including Hardy Orchids)

(Prior to 2002 the title of this publication was "The National Pleione Report"). Containing articles by growers both amateur & professional, as well as botanists, this magazine was a must for all Pleione enthusiasts, whether beginner or experienced. Though the emphasis was on pleiones, there were also some articles on hardy orchids. 

Published annually from 1988 to 2005 the magazine is now no longer published. 

Lists of contents for the issues from 2001 to 2005 can be found here. 


There are of course many other articles in journals and the like though many of these are of a scientific nature. One or two of these are available on the web - see the Links page - but otherwise I don't intend to list them here now. I may add them at a later date if there is demand, but many are listed anyway in the books detailed above.